Two World
by Snow in Starlight Moon
Summary: When a trainee rescued a princess, their journal is going to be a bumpy ride. Along with their friends, can they return to their kingdom in one piece or will the enemies get them first?
1. Chapter 1

"Argh! This is SO hard! I can't do it!" A boy, with chocolate hair and eyes wearing a simple black shirt and ragged blue pants, yelled while holding a little crystal shard. "I give up," he finally said as he fall on his back.

"What? You can't just simply give up!" A girl jumped down from a rock and ran toward the boy. She has brown hair and golden eyes and wears a hat tilted to the left, a red jacket over a white shirt, and shorts under a mini-skirt. "Come on, Jay, it isn't that hard!"

"Well, of course, it's easy for you, Rena! You are trained to be a magician. So, yeah, of course, you can create a protection field just like that *snapped his fingers*!"Jaden complained while getting up.

"So what if I'm a magician? Jess is training to be a swordsman and yet he can do it! So why can't you?" Rena asked.

"I don't know! I guess archers are just bad at magic…" Jaden replied sitting down.

"Hey, guys! Whatcha you doing?" a boy, with aqua hair and green eyes wearing a white sleeveless shirt and black pants, asked.

"Oh, hi, Jess, we were just talking about you!" Rena smiled as she waved to Jesse.

"Really? What about me? Is it about how handsome I am?" Jesse jokily said while he put his arm around her shoulder.

"Yes, you're gorgeous," Jaden walking towards him and patted his back.

"That wasn't a question for you, Jay!" Jesse complained.

"Haha, no, we were talking about how you can create a protection field but Jay can't." Rena laughed as she lifted Jess's arm up.

"Still? Come on, Jay, it's been like what 3 weeks and yet you still can't do it!" Jesse said in disbelieved.

"Well! It's not my fault!" Jaden tried to argue back.

"… How can it be NOT your fault?" Jesse and Rena asked confusingly.

"I don't know! It must be the shard's fault!" Jaden tried to find something/someone else to blame beside himself.

"But…" they both tried to talk back but were cut off by General Crowler walking in.

"Well, I guess you guys are slacking off... again!" General Crowler angrily yelled as he walked in.

"Ah!" They screamed in unison. To be honest, they weren't really scared of him; they were more scared by the way he is dress. I mean, even though the man is wearing armor, he has it with gold trimmings and ruffled pink collar, shoulders, upper chest, and sleeves, with gold earring, and purple lipstick. They were used to it but it is a shock every time they see him.

"Hm! That's not really exactly polite to talk to your GENERAL!" General Crowler growled.

"Um… Sorry! What is it you need, General Crowler," Jaden, being the only one who was able to break the scariness, coughed.

"Well, the king wants all three of you to go to the Village of Light to deliver this message to their king," General Crowler said in disgust while holding an envelope.

"Us? Are you sure? I mean that sounds pretty important and we ARE just trainees…" Jesse asked unsurely.

"You'll be fine. The king said it is a pretty simple job that even a trainee, like you, can do it. But since it is the first mission any of you ever have, the king decided to let all three of you go." General Crowler assured them while hoping to get out of here as soon as possible.

"Are you or someone stronger coming with us?" Rena asked. She is still not sure if this mission is as easy as General Crowler made it sound to be.

"No, you won't need anyone. You, ur…, strong… enough…" General Crowler tried his best to get those words out of his mouth. The truth was that he just doesn't want to go with them and he also just wanted to get rid of them. Which it's also the only reason why he wanted all of them to go to this mission. "Now, go, get ready for your mission. The journal is about 1 to 2 weeks on foot."

"Yes, sir!"


	2. Chapter 2

"My dearest king, I respect you in every way. However, I can NOT marry to your daughter! She is just simply mean and rude. Good luck finding someone for her!" A young prince shouted as he stormed out of the palace. He has brown hair and light brown eyes. He wore a huge hat with long, fluffy feather sticking out of his top left hat. He also wore a puffy shirt and pants. Beneath it he wore tights and as well WAY too much sparkle.

"No! Oh, no, please wait, Prince Harrington!" Please just give her a second chance! I promised that she will be more like a lady the next time!" The king begged as he ran toward the prince.

"No!" Harrington quickly turned around. He put his hand on the king's shoulder to stop him from begging and coming any closer. "It is true that she is gorgeous beyond imagine. And I will always love her for that. However, her cold, icy attitude will turn every man on this planet away! Now go get my horse for I am leaving."

The king hesitated to call Harrington's horse; he was thinking of any words and any ways to stop the prince from leaving. However, when he realized that there's no word to stop the prince's departure, he said to his servant, "go and get his horse and guide him to the city gate."

"Yes, sir," the servant said then ran to get Harrington's horse.

"I'll be going now." Harrington said as he started to follow the servant.

"Oh, yes, of course," the king bided him farewell. As soon as Harrington left, the king angrily walked toward his daughter's room and yelled, at the top of his lung, "Alexis! ALEXIS!"

"Yes, father?" Alexis asked as she slowly walked out of her room. She wore a light blue gown with crystal tiara and necklace.

"What is this I heard of you being rude to Prince Harrington!" The king madly asked. He was not patient at his daughter at all this time.

"Well, all I said was that he had WAY too much of sparkle and he is a big, fat loser, and …" Alexis paused trying to remember what else she had said to insult the prince.

The king, unable to take it anymore, shouted, "Alexis! How could you!"

"Father, please calm down, it wasn't a big deal! He tried to make a move on me. So I shove him, and angrily said those words. That's all. All I wanted was for him to treat me like a real lady!" Alexis tried to explain and also clam her father down.

"What's going on here?" Alexis's brother, Atticus, who happened to walk into this conversation, asked, "These loud noise made me woke up from my nap…"

"Oh, brother!" Alexis surprisingly said. She was so focus on talking to her father; she didn't realize that her brother walking in.

"I'm trying to convince Alexis to give Prince Harrington another chance," the king answered Atticus's question.

"You STILL haven't given up on that stupid idea!" Atticus shockingly said. He usually sees his father as a wise man. However, when it is on this specific topic, he thinks his father is being a ridiculous man.

"It's not a stupid idea! It's the law!" The king fought back. He hated how his children know the law, but chose to ignore it or, worse, fight it. "You know full well that the law said that a princess must be marry before she turns 18! And just in case, you haven't realize, Alexis is going to turn 18 in just 4 weeks! She doesn't have much time left!"

"But father! I wanted to be in it for love, not for power!" Alexis argued back. She didn't like it how her father was talking like she wasn't even here, "I want a husband that I choose because I love him, NOT because I am ordered to marry him."

"And beside, when you die I'LL be king! Just in case YOU forgot, I AM, after all, the oldest and a male," Atticus supported his sister.

"_*sigh*_ I know that, Atticus. But I'm worry when you become king! You are so irresponsible and wild-nature! I bet you'll just have party every night, when you become king. You need someone like Alexis by your side to help you! And as for you, Alexis, you know I don't mean to bring harm. I'm just trying to make sure you are taking care of when I am gone."

"I'm NOT irresponsible! And I won't have party EVERY night!_ Maybe every other night…_," Atticus murmured the last part, "I just a bit crazy, that's all!"

"Father, I understand that… But I can take care of myself and Atticus, full well," Alexis smiled.

"Oh…" the king held his fist. Seeing that he can't get through his children, he gave up. "Fine, do what you want! But Alexis, I just want you to know, sooner or later, you're going to have to face the law!"

The king walked away with this unforgettable speech for the poor Alexis.


	3. Chapter 3

Alexis walked around the palace unable to forget the words her father said last time she saw him. _"Sooner or later, you're going to have to face the law!"_ Alexis shook her head trying to get those words out of her mind. However, no matter how hard she tried, those words were still ringing in her head.

"_What am I going to do…? Father will not rest 'til he finds someone for me…" _Alexis thought to herself. She started to walk toward the palace's rose garden. It was her favorite place to go when she was little and even now it still is. She liked there because of how peaceful it is. It was her personal thinking place. _"It is a bit late… Oh, well, I'm sure no one would care, and beside what could go wrong."_ She thought as she started walking toward the garden.

She walked toward the middle the garden where there is a water fountain. She sat down on the cement part of the fountain. Letting her fingers danced in the water, she sighed. "I… I can't get out of this… Oh, how I wish I wasn't born as a princess. Being a princess STUCKS!" She splashed the water with her right hand.

"Well, I can change that," a mysterious voice cried from behind the rose bushes.

"Huh? Who's that! And… what do you mean by 'I can change that'?" Alexis stood up wondering who's the man that owns that voice. She didn't recognize it to be any of the servants who work in the palace.

The mysterious man stepped out of the bushes. He wore a black shirt, vest, and pants and also a mask that covers all his face except for his red, blood-hunger eyes. "What I meant was that you don't need to be a princess if you are… dead."

"Wh…What!" Alexis froze to stone as soon as she heard the word 'dead.' This man is trying to KILL her!

"Don't worry, I won't kill you… yet…" the man said. Even though, you can't see his mouth, you can tell that he was smiling evilly. "The boss wants to see you first."

"Hey! What's taking so long!" A woman yelled as she walked into this conversation. She has long dark red hair with icy blue eyes. She wore pretty much the same thing as the mysterious man is except she wasn't wearing a mask. "You know I am terrible at patient!"

"I know, I know… Quite nagging at me, alright!" the man scratched his head in annoyance. "I'm just about to grab her, ok! Man, I hate when you yell at me."

"Then hurry up! I want to leave as soon as possible!" the woman tapped her foot.

"Okay, okay," the man grabbed Alexis's hand. However, as soon as the man did, Alexis started to struggle to get free.

"Get away from me, you freak!" Alexis screamed.

"Oh, shut up!" the woman impatiently howled, "Keep talking and I'll cut that tongue of yours!"

_Silence…_

"You know that our boss wants to see her alive and full piece, nothing missing, even if it means tongue," the man sighed.

"Argh… I know… I don't understand why but I know," the woman looked away, _"What so special about this girl that the boss wants her alive?"_ the woman wondered to herself.

"Exactly, now, that's go," the man said as he grabbed and pulled Alexis away. "Now, come on, we'll tie her up later."

"Fine with me," the woman agreed as she tightens her fist.

"Alexis! Alexis! Where are you, sis!" Atticus ran around the palace screaming at the top of his lung.

"What's the matter, Atticus? What's with all these screaming and yelling?" the king yawned because of how early this is.

"This is an emergency! I can't find Alexis anywhere! I went to her room this morning to check to see if she's okay but she's not in her room or anywhere in the palace!" Atticus fearfully said.

"What!" the king fully awoke from his sleep. "Guards! Go and find Alexis now! Search everywhere, every inch and don't you dare miss a spot!"

"Yes, sir!" the guards saluted.

"Do you think she's okay?" Atticus asked his father.

"She'll be fine, she's a tough girl…" the king patted his son's back to comfort him. Inward, he was praying, _"Oh, Lord, my God, my Savior, please, please, make sure Alexis is alright!"_

"Your Majesty! I found this pink, silk handkerchief in the rose garden!" a guard yelled while he ran toward the king's room.

The king gasped as he saw the handkerchief. He kneed down on the ground, "this… this is Alexis's…"

"Dad…? Do you think Alexis is… kidnapped?" Atticus shakily said. He stumbled saying those words out.

"No! Atticus! Please don't say that, my son!" the king cried covering his ears. "Al…Alexis…" the king fainted.

"Your Majesty!" the guards cried running toward the king.

"Dad!" Atticus cried.


	4. Chapter 4

"Ah! I'm tired! My legs are sore!" Jaden whined as he slowly kept up with Jesse and Rena.

"Come on, Jay, be strong! We're almost there," Jesse cheerfully said trying to encourage Jaden.

"Jess, are you kidding me? We only been walking for 5 days! And the journey is about 1 to 2 weeks, and most likely 2 weeks! And that doesn't include coming back from the trip! We're not even close. Honestly, we're closer to our kingdom than the village!" Rena argued. Usually, she would agree with Jesse about trying to cheer up Jaden, but this time she was just as tired as Jaden.

"That's true. Yeah, I guess we can rest," Jesse shrugged his shoulder. The truth was that he was tired too.

"Yes!" Jaden and Rena cheered as they high five each other.

They kept walking until they found a large tree. They sat down beneath the tree and got out their lunch and started eating.

"I don't understand why General Crowler wouldn't give us those horses that the knights use for traveling. It would have helped us travel way faster," Jaden asked.

"How should I know?" Jesse replied.

"Well, General Crowler said that those horses are needed for the knights to practice for battles and other stuffs," Rena answered, "Don't really understand it, but you know can't really argue against a general…"

"True," Jaden and Jesse agreed.

"He still could give us something to help us travel…" Jaden thought of. "We left in such a hurry; I couldn't even say a proper goodbye to Sy or Hassleberry!"

"Yeah, well, it's a bit too late to say that," Rena said.

"And beside, you send them both a letter saying you have to go and that you'll give them the deeds later," Jesse said.

"Yeah, but I still wanted to tell them in person..." Jaden looked up the sky. "Oh, well, at least for now, we can rest," Jaden lay down on the grass.

"Yeah," Jesse and Rena agreed. They both lay down next to Jaden and soon they all fall into a deep and sweet dream.

"Hurry up! Come on, move it!" a woman's voice cried out.

"I know; I'm trying! But you know you CAN slow down for me! I'm carrying a person on my back, just letting you know!" another voice yelled back. This time the voice was a male's.

"Oh, I know, and I bet I can go much faster than you with HER on my back!" the woman argued.

"Well, then, why don't you take her?" the man protested.

"Simple, I'm a woman and you're a man. Now, move your lazy bum!" the woman shouted.

"Hm?" Rena gently rubbed her eyes. "Jay, Jess, stop shouting at each other for no apparent reason!" Rena annoying said. However, when Jaden and Jesse didn't reply, she sat up and saw that both of them are still in deep sleep.

"Wait… what? Then who… was that?" Rena wondered as she stood up trying to find where those voices were coming from. As she walked a few more steps, she saw two mysterious figures with one of them carrying a big brown stack bag. "That bag… it almost looks like it can fit a person in it. I wonder if it is. I should ask what Jay and Jess think."

Rena ran as fast as she could back to the tree. As she reached the tree, she started to shake the boys, "Jay, Jess, wake up!"

"What, Rena?" Jaden asked, "What's the matter?"

"Yeah, Rena," Jesse slowly got up.

"I heard some noises over there and when I got over there I saw two weirdoes carrying a huge stack bag," Rena explained.

Jaden and Jesse looked at each other and asked, "So what?"

"I think there might be a person inside the bag," Rena replied.

"Then what are we waiting for!" Jaden suddenly got up, "come on, guys. We got to save whoever might be inside that bag," Jaden started to run toward the place where Rena pointed. Rena is usually right when it came to these stuffs.

"Right," Jesse and Rena followed Jaden.


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey! You two!" Jaden shouted as he ran toward the two mysterious people.

"Oh! What now?" the woman said annoyingly.

"Who are you, kid?" the man coldly said. His eyes were as cold as ice. He was least a bit interested of who it was that had yelled at them.

"I'm here…" Jaden paused for a second, "hey! Wait a minute; did you just call me a 'kid'?"

"Yeah, so?" the man replied calmly.

"Well, I'm not a kid! I'm 16!" Jaden angrily argued.

_Silence…_

"Jay, what are you doing?" Rena yelled as she and Jesse caught up with Jaden. "Are you getting off subject again?" Jaden is, as a matter of fact, very easily to get distracted. (Shocker, right?) He can even get himself distracted with a stick, and sometime even with nothing. The only reason why Jaden could ever get back on track was because Rena and Jesse had to constantly remind him to get back to whatever he was doing.

"Huh? Oh, right, sorry," Jaden apologized, "I guess I got off subject again…"

"You think?" Both Jesse and Rena replied.

"So what EXACTLY do you want?" the woman asked. She wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

"Well, since you asked so kindly," Jesse said. _"Not,"_ Jesse thought after he replied her question. "What's in the bag?"

"It's none of your business," the man whispered.

"Yes, it is! I know there's a body in there!" Rena pointed to the bag. "I heard you two talking about it!"

Both of them had a shock expression on their faces but then quickly hid it. "Well, then I guess you going to have to beat us to find out," the woman said as she suddenly vanished and then reappeared right in front of Rena's face.

"_She's fast!"_ Rena thought. The woman then grabbed Rena's shoulder and threw her toward a tree. "Ouch!" Rena yelled when she got hit by the tree.

"Rena!" Jaden and Jesse yelled. They started ran toward Rena's direction. However, before they can reach her, the man stood right between them and Rena.

"Sorry, but you got to face me first if you want to save your little friend over there."

"Argh, fine, I will!" Jesse drew his katana out and got into the fighting position. "Jay!"

"What?"

"Go and rescue that bag! Rena and I got this!"

"What! Are you insane? I want to help you!"

"And you will by saving that bag! We will hold them for as long as we can!"

"But…"

"Jay!" Rena yelled at a bit of a distance, "we're counting on you! You are the fastest out of all three of us!"

"Fine, I'll do it," Jaden finally replied after a long quiet silence. As soon as he said that, he started to run toward the bag.

"_Oh, no, you don't!"_ Both the man and woman thought and started to run toward Jaden. Rena and Jesse ran as fast as they could to get right in front of them.

"Sorry, but you have through _us_ first," Jesse smiled.

"Now, if you don't mind, tell us your guys' names, first rule of fighting, 'always know your opponent's name'," Rena smiled gently.

"Alright, I'm Nigel," the man replied.

"And I'm Celina." The woman answered. "And what about you guys?"

"I'm Jesse."

"I'm Rena."


	6. Chapter 6 Jesse vs Nigel

**I'm really sorry for updating this so late! I just got so busy with homework and everything! I tried my best to update this often! Again, I'm really, really sorry for this! I hope you'll like this chapter!**

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"Now, let's play," Celina smiled as she started walking toward Rena. "You got the boy, Nigel."

"Hey! How come you're always the one who choose which one of us gets to battle who?" Nigel caught up with Celina asking.

"What? You don't want to battle with that boy?" Celina pointed to Jesse, "I'm sure you'll have a blast with him. Look, he's even using the same kind of weapon as you."

"Fine, whatever…" Nigel sighed, "C'mon boy, let's hurry up and finish this." Nigel turned to face Jesse.

"Fine with me," Jesse smiled as he unsheathing his sword and ran toward Nigel.

"Great... another over exciting boy..." Nigel yawned releasing his sword.

_"Argh…! He's strong…!"_ Jesse thought to himself as his sword and Nigel's sword collided.

"I don't have the time to play, boy!" Nigel yelled as he easily pushed Jesse backward about 10 feet. "Hm, you aren't as strong as you appear to be… How disappointing, boy."

"Argh…" Jesse yelled as he fell down. "Stop… Calling me 'boy'," Jesse said slowly getting up. "I already told you my name…"

"I'm in a hurry, so I'm gonna end this quickly," Nigel said. He then held his sword 90 degrees and murmured something to himself. As he finished saying, his sword started glowing in bright purple. "Just so you know, no one has ever survived this attack," Nigel raised his hand with the sword up high, "Clash, Donovan!"

A huge purple crescent-shape slash then appeared and flew speedily toward Jesse. "Eeaagh!" Jesse gasped as it came and clashed with him. It then exploded pushing Jesse farther back as well as knocking down the tree that was behind him. "Ack!" Jesse coughed spitting out blood during the process.

"Hm…" Nigel said as he rubbed his chin with his left hand, "I'm surprise you're still alive, boy. And more importantly, you're not missing any parts of your body or get a huge slash through your chest. Maybe I didn't do it hard enough. Nya… That couldn't be it. I swear I use probably about one-third of my strength on that attack… Hm…" Nigel thought hard to himself. Finally, his head couldn't take it, so he asked, "Hey, boy, how are you still alive?"

"Wha… What do you mean?" Jesse asked confusingly tilting his head to the right.

"I mean, how come you're not dead after that blast!" Nigel asked annoyingly.

"Oh, that, I don't know, guess I'm tougher that you thought," Jesse smiled, "Oh, yeah, you still haven't answer me why don't you call me by my real name!"

"You just won't let that go, will you, boy…?" Nigel said scratching his head like he doesn't really want to bother answering that question. "If you really want to know that badly, I'll tell you: I only call people by their names if I respect them as warriors. It's that simple."

"So all I need is to get your respect so you'll call me by my name," Jesse smiled as he wiped the blood off of the corner of his mouth, "simple enough." Jesse then closed his eyes, putting his sword straight up to the sky and yelled, "Shine, Hoseki!" As he screamed out those words, his sword began to change colors, in the pattern of the rainbow. "Here, I come!" Jesse smiled as he charged toward Nigel and clashed with him.

"_Hm…! He's stronger this time!"_ Nigel thought to himself. "You got a bit better, boy, I'm surprise. Does wanting me to call you by your real name that important to you?"

"Heck yeah, that's important to me! My name is my pride and honor!" Jesse said hitting his chest proudly. "Oh, and that's not all I can do either," Jesse grinned. "And I'll be happy to show it to you."

"I can't wait to see it," Nigel smiled back.

"Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh!" a sudden cry burst out in the air making all the birds in the forest flew away and their battle stopped.

"Huh?" Jesse and Nigel both said questionably.

"What was that?" Jesse asked worryingly. _"Hope Jay and Rena both are okay…" _He thought to himself.


	7. Chapter 7 Rena vs Celina

**Hey! Sorry for the late update! Being busy with homework and stuff... I feel like I say that a lot, but it's true! I got so much homework! It's usually almost 10 when I done with my work! Anyway! Here's Ch 7! Hope you like it! And please, REVIEW!**

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"Quit running, girl!" Celina yelled as she stood in front of Rena to force her to stop, "We're alone now."

"Mm," Rena growled.

"What? You don't think I realize the fact that you two purposely split up just so you guys can buy some time for that archer to steal our precious bag?" Celina grinned and paused. "Well, THAT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!" Celina screamed.

"We are not stealing! We're just taking back what you guys had stolen!" Rena replied.

"Taking back? What are you talking about? We didn't take that bag from you guys." Celina laughed. "Why would we want to take anything for you guys, anyway?"

"You two still stole whatever that is in there from someone! We're just taking it so we can return it!" Rena argued back.

"Ha. Sorry, but I can't allow that," Celina sighed.

"We'll see about that," Rena grinned and then shouted, "Earth Wave!" The ground beneath Celina then began to crumble down. Once she realized this, Celina jumped up into the air to avoid the attack. "Heat Shock!" Rena held out her hand and at the palm of her hand crimson red slices was created and was flying toward Celina.

Celina, while in mid-air, tried to dodge them. But, still one of them came in contact her arm barely. "Hot!" She thought to herself as she started to land. Once she landed on the ground, she questioned, "I thought real magicians only use one specific element as their attacks."

"So? I like different types of attacks. What's so wrong about that?" Rena asked.

"What's wrong?" Celina smiled. "I'll tell you what's wrong. It means that you are just a witch-in-training. Am I right?"

"Eh…" Rena hesitated.

"Looks like I'm right at the spot." Celina smiled. "Now, allow me to show you what a real witch attack is." Celina raised her hand and shouted, "Light Shower!" A cloud then appeared above Rena's head start raining down thousands of needles of light.

"Argh!" Rena shouted in pain. "Shoot! It's impossible to dodge them!" Rena thought to herself.

"How was that? Painful?" Celina jokingly asked. "Well, I'm not done yet, so you better hang in there with me," she smiled. "Light Grip!"

Before Rena could even get a grasp on herself, she found a bright, shiny object flying towards her. "Crap! What's that? Argh! I… I… can't move!" She thought to herself as she tried her best to get her body to move again. However, it was too late. That bright object had already made contact with her, pushed her back to a tree, and finally the object wrapped itself around Rena's right wrist which chained her with the tree.

"What the? What is this?" Rena asked while trying to pull it out of her wrist.

"You can't escape from that. It's like a handcuff." Celina said and walked toward her, "now, I'll let you see the true light." She grinned while creating a sword made out of light.

"Eh!" Rena gasped as she desperately tried to pull her hand out of the tree so she can make her escape.

"I told you, 'you can't escape!'" Celina mocked.

"I can't give up! I can't let it end here!" Rena thought. "Argh!" She shut her eyes as she saw the sword coming towards her. However, it never landed. She then found herself on the ground with her hand free from the tree and the Light Grip. "Huh? What… What happened?" She questioned. Just then, she saw Celina falling down while having a loud scream of pain. "A… an arrow?" She said shockingly as she saw what had strike Celina's back.

"Phew! Glad I made it in time!" A boyish voice cheerfully said.

"J… Jay!" Rena said surprisingly.

"Hey! Rena. What's up? I got the bag just like you ask me to!" Jaden smiled while posing a V-sign with his hand.

"Great!" Rena relieved.

"I won't let you have that!" Celina said as she slowly trying to get up.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" Jaden smile cockily, "that arrow I shot was poisonous. Quite, actually." He said proudly.

This fact, that Jaden said, turned out to be quite true. As Celina tried to stand up, all she did was falling back to the ground (face-plant!) After about the tenth fall, Celina gave up and all she could do now is just giving Jaden a death glare.

"Told you," Jaden said casually.

"Rena!" A voice cried.

"Huh?" Rena looked around to see who was calling her, "Jess!" She smiled when she found out who was calling her name.

"You alright?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah, why?" Rena replied.

"Well, I heard a scream and…" Jesse said but ended up being cut off at mid-sentence.

"Celina!" Nigel cried, "What did you do to her!" He asked angrily.

"Oh, her?" Rena questioned, "she was shot with a poisonous arrow by Jay here." As she said that, Jaden waved to show that it was he who had done that. (even though it could have been only him, but… anyway!)

"You, little…" Nigel cursed while standing up to a ready position to fight.

"NIGEL!" A voice screamed to stop Nigel from attacking.

"C… Celina, what's the matter?" Nigel asked shockingly.

"Forget it, let's just go back," Celina gasped for air, "We'll just take the punishment from boss for now…"

"But," Nigel wanted to argue but then realized there is nothing to argue about when he saw Celina's eyes.

"This isn't over…," Celina said as Nigel helped her to get up, "We'll be back for sure… And make you pay… for what you have… done."

"We'll take back our subject too," Nigel said before raising his sword in air and yelled, "Transport!" At that second, Nigel and Celina disappeared in thin air.

"Where… Where did they go?" Jesse asked in confusion.

"Who cares! At least, they let us keep the bag!" Jaden said carefree.

"Yeah, that's see what's inside," Rena said excitedly as all three of them gathered around the bag to open it to reveal its mystery.

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**I'll try to update more during the Christmas break!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hi! Merry Christmas! Like I promised I updated during the Christmas break!**

**Thank you all who had review this story! I really, and I mean REALLY, appreciated!**

**I also changed some minor details for the previous chapters to make the story smoother. Though it's your option if you want to reread those chapters. I'll just tell you that the biggest change I did is switching the name from Village of Wind to Village of Light. Anyway, that's all!**

**Please review!**

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"Hurry up, Jess!" Rena yelled as she pulled on Jess' shirt like a little girl would do to get attention or something she wants from her parents.

"Yeah, we want to see what's inside!" Jaden excitedly agreed.

"Just because you two tell me to hurry, doesn't make me go any faster!" Jesse argued back as he carefully cutting the rope off the bag with his dagger.

"Just rip that thing already, Jess!" Jaden yelled trying to rip the bag with his own hands. "Like this!"

"Don't touch it!" Jesse barked. "You heard what Rena said, it could be a person in here!"

"So?" Jaden asked confusingly.

"_sigh._ Just leave it to me," Jesse said tiredly. After about a minute, which to Rena and Jaden it was like an eternity, Jesse smiled, "There it's open!"

"Yes!" Rena and Jaden cheered.

"Let's see what's inside!" Jaden said eagerly as he opened the bag a bit more. As soon as he opened the bag, a girl fell down and landed in his arms. "Wow, it is a person! Your hutch is as good as ever, Rena!" Jaden patted his friend.

The girl, inside the bag, was still fainted when Jaden opened the bag. Her skin color was pale, but started to return to normal color when she was able started to breathe more air into her lungs. She was wearing a light blue gown, which now is a bit torn, with crystal tiara, which was crooked, and necklace. Her blond hair was messy which was probably because she was the bag.

"Man," Jaden whistled, "she sure dressed fancy, huh, guys?" Jaden looked at his friends repeatedly. When he realized that they haven't answered him for a while and the shocked expressions on their faces, he asked, "What's wrong?"

Jesse and Rena, still in shock, barely squeaked out, "This girl… is…!"

"Hm? What? What is she?" Jaden asked confusingly as he gently put the girl against a tree so she can rest there. "C'mon, spill it!"

"Jay, this girl is the princess, Alexis!" Rena shouted.

"What? No way! That's so cool!" Jaden yelled excitedly.

"No it's not!" Jesse argued, "What is she doing here? I bet the kingdom is freaking out right now."

"Probably," Rena sighed, "And how can you not know that she's the princess, Jay?"

"I don't know. I don't really care about royalty, so yeah…" Jaden smiled.

"Anyway, what should we do with her?" Jesse asked.

"I don't know. We should at least contact the king and…" Rena stopped as she saw Alexis started to move.

"Mm…" Alexis yawned as she slowly started to move, "where… am… I?"

"Morning!" Jaden said cheerfully, "My name is Jaden, nice to meet you!"

"_Ah! He dared talk to the princess so carefree...!"_ Jesse and Rena thought shockingly.

"I'm Alexis," Alexis said rubbing her head, "and once again where am I!"

"Chill, alright, you're in about the middle of the Forest of Moon, and you're happened to be in the middle of our mission to the Village of Light," Jaden said calmly.

"Forest of Moon! Oh, no, I must go back, father told me it's dangerous to be out here," Alexis said frighteningly, "especially alone."

"Nah, it's not so bad during day!" Jaden assured her.

"Well, either way I have to go back." Alexis said as she stood up and started to walk. When she realized no one was following her, she asked, "Well, what are you waiting for? Aren't you guys gonna come and protect me?"

"She's kidding, right?" Jaden whispered annoyingly.

"I'm sorry, princess, but we have an important mission," Jesse said as he covered Jaden's mouth to make sure Alexis did not hear his comment.

"But I have to go back! And I can't just walk back there all by myself," Alexis said, "Can any of you able to get hold of father? Maybe he'll know what to do. And beside I need to let him and Atticus know that I'm safe."

"I have a crystal ball that is use for communication!" Rena said as she took out the crystal ball from her bag. "General Crowler gave it to me just in case the king from the Village of Light (yes, I change the name of the village to suit the story for the future) want to speak with our king."

"Sweet! Let's call the king now!" Jaden smiled.

* * *

"Who is it?" The king sighed as he answered the crystal ball.

"Father? Father, is that you?" Alexis asked.

"Alexis! Thank the heavens that you are alright!" The king cried.

"Yes, I'm alright." Alexis tried to calm her father down. At that moment Atticus happened to enter the room and saw Alexis in the crystal ball.

He then cheerfully ran up to the crystal ball and blocked his father so Alexis can see him. "Alexis? You're okay? That's great!" He said happily.

"Yes, it is," Alexis smiled.

"Who, who did this to you?" The king shouted as he pushed Atticus away from the crystal ball, "Was it you guys!" The king shouted when he saw Jaden, Jesse, and Rena. "I'll have you people executed immediately!"

"Whoa! Dad! Come down!" Atticus said shockingly as he tried calming his father down.

"Yeah, we didn't do anything to the princess!" Rena worriedly said as she put her hands in front of her to show that they didn't do anything.

"Father, they didn't do anything to me. In fact they were the ones who rescue me!" Alexis revealed the truth.

"See, nothing happen," Atticus smiled at his father.

"Is that so? When then I sincerely apologize for my accusation and forever grateful for rescuing my beloved daughter," the king humbly said, "If you guys haven't rescued her… Who knows what would happen to my Alexis!" The king said slowly as he tried not to let tears start falling down his eyes. "Anyway, I assume that you guys will be coming home soon to return my daughter, correct?"

"Um… Actually, your majesty, that's what we called to talk about," Jesse said uneasily, "See, we were the people that you gave your order to go to the Village of Light to deliver something. And… Well, we had traveling for five days now, so, um, well, we can't really go back now."

"WHAT! YOU MEAN YOU ARE NOT COMING BACK!" The king angrily shouted as he stood up from his throne.

"Dad…" Atticus, in shock, whispered.

"Father…" Alexis whispered as well.

Jaden, Jesse, and Rena fell to the floor when they heard the king's reply. They were shocked that the king had screamed very angrily at them. It's not their fault that the princess was captured and they ended up saving her. They had been told by many that the king was a kindhearted man and would never yell at his subordinate. Guess they were wrong.

"Dad, look, I know you're mad, but you know how important this mission is," Atticus finally said something after a long dead silence.

After a long trail of thoughts, the king sat back down in his throne and replied, "I know, Atticus, I know. And that is why I'm willing to let Alexis to go with them in this mission."

"Wh… What!" All of them yelled shockingly.

"Yes, Alexis, I'm letting you go with them for this mission. But I must warn you all. Alexis is to back in no later than 3 weeks. If she is brought here late or in any way hurt, your punishment will severe." The king warned.

"Ye… yes, sir," Jaden, Jesse, and Rena mumbled out these words shakily.

"Very well, then, I shall see you all in 3 weeks," the king said as he ended the call.

* * *

"Well, guess you gonna be with us for a while," Jaden said as he stood up looking at Alexis.

"I… I guess so," Alexis said. She cannot believe it after 17 years she is finally able to have her own adventure outside of the kingdom. _"I can't wait to see what will happen!"_ She thought happily.


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey, guys, I'm back! Sorry, for the late update! My computer crushed a while ago, so I lost all my documents... so that was not fun... :( After that it was finals, so I couldn't write.**

* * *

"Argh, my legs are tire! How long do we still have to walk?" Alexis asked walking behind everyone.

"Well, maybe you won't be so tire if you had walk more often, and not ask your personal servant to carry you," Jaden annoyingly replied.

"Jay!" Rena whispered loudly, "watch it! She's the princess!"

"I don't care if she is the queen of the universe. I don't like people who can't survive on their own," Jaden answered loudly enough for Alexis to hear on purpose.

"Then we'll just teach her how to survive on her own," Jesse thought of an idea.

"Whatever," Jaden continued to walk.

"Wait, I think we should rest now," Rena suggested. "I mean it's getting dark and the princess is tire, after all."

"Yes, that would be nice," Alexis panted when she caught up with them.

* * *

"Okay, I'll set up camp!" Rena, raising her hand, volunteered.

"Then I'll gather the firewood," Jesse thought for a moment before saying.

"Guess I'll get the food for tonight," Jaden said since that was the only job left besides cooking, which he can't do. "What are you going to do then?" Jaden asked Alexis.

"Huh? I have to something?" Alexis surprisingly asked.

"Yes, everyone has a job. If you don't do something, then you don't really deserve the food after all the works are done," Jaden casually answered.

"Oh…" Alexis replied sadly.

"So what can you do then?" Rena asked trying to cheer Alexis up.

"I can cook a little," Alexis thought of this job.

"Great! Then you can cook when everything is set up," Jesse cheerfully said.

* * *

"Don't be so down, it's hard for everyone when changes happen," Rena said when she saw how down Alexis was. Rena was setting up the tents for everyone to sleep in.

"I guess, but Jaden doesn't have to be so mean about it," Alexis said.

"Don't mind him," Rena smiled, "he had a hard childhood. It's only natural of him to think every rich person in this world is a bad person."

"Why, what happen?" Alexis asked.

Rena let out a small laugh, "Why don't you ask him, instead? It is his life story after all."

"Okay."

"I'm back! Good thing this forest has dozen of twigs that are just happen to hang on the ground," Jesse cheerfully said as he came to them carrying a bunch of the firewood. "Hey, is Jaden back yet?"

"Hi, Jess," Rena welcomed him, "no, Jay's not back yet, maybe this forest's animals are really good at hiding."

"I'm back!" Jaden cheered as soon as Rena said that statement. Jaden was carrying a big giant boar. "Alright, now, cook this, Lex!"

"You want me to cook… THAT!?" Alexis asked in disbelief. She had cooked pork before, but not when the animal stills has its pelt on and everything.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Jaden asked confusingly.

"What's wrong? Look at it! It stilled on its fur and everything!" Alexis pointed at the boar.

"I can't believe you," Jaden said quietly, "Have you never seen a real animal before? You know, when you find a pig this big, normal people would be so happy that they would left speechless! Just when I thought not all rich people are shallow, you showed up and said that!"

"Jay!" Rena disbelieved at what her friend had just said. "That's too far!"

"No I'm not, what I said it's all true, and you guys know it! You're only protecting her, because she's the princess," Jaden argued. "You know what I can't stand this. I'm leaving." Jaden started to head toward the inner forest.

"Jay, wait!" Jesse yelled after him.

"Jaden, stop!" Alexis shouted shocking everyone. "Look, I'm sorry for whatever I did, but you don't have to be so judgmental. What have I ever done to you?"

Jaden laughed a little. "See, that only works because you're using rich people logic. Rich people only care about their own welfare. They think they are so perfect, and nothing they do is wrong. They don't care who they crush as long as they are able to get to the top in the end."

"How can you say that? What make you think we are like that?" Alexis started to tear up anger at the harsh words Jaden had been throwing at her. "You don't even know what a rich person had to deal with!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot how tough it is to be rich. Yeah, just lying around all day, making all your servants do your jobs, oh, yeah, that's tough. And if you want know that badly then fine, I'll tell you why," Jaden replied.

"Jay, you don't have to," Rena said quietly knowing he will reveal his own childhood.

"No, if she wants to know so badly, I'll tell her," Jaden answered her, "My parents were killed by a rich family, because it was an example to all who owns debt to them. They wanted to put fear in people's heart, so they decided to kill one of the families to show what happen when the people don't pay them, and my parents just happen to be the unfortunate ones. I was forced to watch them burn alive. They protected me by saying I wasn't their child, so I won't have to die with them. After my parents died, I was forced to survive on my own. No one cared for me, no one wanted me, and I didn't deserve to live." Rena and Jesse looked down sadly knowing the story full well.

"Oh…" Alexis was left speechless.

"After a while, Rena's family found me dying on the street, and decided to take me in. I was given a new hope and reason to live, and I was forever grateful to them." Jaden took a small bow toward Rena. She just blushed a little from embarrassment. "I also met Jesse, because he was Rena's friend."

"We're glad you're in our lives too, Jaden," Rena said putting her hand on Jaden's shoulder, trying to cheer him up. "Now, come on, let's eat. I'll cook."

"I'll help." Alexis offered.

* * *

**Hope you like it! Please Review :D And if you have any idea, please share with me! I kinda have a writer's block right now... :(**


	10. Chapter 10

Again, I'm so sorry about not updating often! I was focus on my other story that I had just start... Sorry :(

I hope you guys will like this chapter though :) And Happy Thanksgiving!

Please Review!

* * *

"Man, I can't believe you just let those three brats get away with the princess," Nigel said annoyingly while stilled supporting Celina as they walked back to their boss' lair.

"Shut up. The only reason why I said that is because I know you would have fail trying to fight all three of them at the same time," Celina argued. "You were never good against more two people."

"I've improve! Besides, these people are just rookies. I could have torn them to shreds." Nigel said that last part mostly to himself.

"Forget it." Celina said. "Put that face away, we're here." As she said that, they stood in front of a pure white cabin in the middle of the forest. All the trees besides the cabin were cut down, so there was barely anything surrounding it.

"Master had been waiting for you two," a teenage boy with silver hair and blue eyes said as Nigel and Celina walked slowly into the white, wooden door. "Did you get the princess?" As the boy questioned that, Nigel and Celina looked at the floor angrily and refused to answer.

"That question is for the master to ask," Celina said finally after a long dead silence.

"And we'll only answer to master anyway," Nigel said annoyingly. He never liked the boy. Ever since the boy had shown up, he had done nothing but making Celina and Nigel looked bad.

"Ah, I'm so glad you two have finally returned. I was starting to get worry," their master lied the last part. The master had dark blue hair with light blue in the front and gray in the middle. "My cards tell me you didn't finish the job, why is that?"

"Sorry, boss, they took us by surprise," Celina said guilty. "We took them too lightly, because they were trainees. That will never happen again."

"It better not, or else I'll deal with you two personally," the master said putting his hands on top the desk in front of him. "And I'll let others to take care of the princess and her kingdom." As he said that, the master was mainly focused on the teenage boy, since he was the master's best choice.

"Yes, boss," Nigel and Celina said in unison.

"Now, go and heal yourself." The boss pressed a button. "I don't need two sick people walking around here." After a few seconds, a doctor showed up waiting for the instruction of his master. "Take care of them and get rid of Celina's poison first, understand?"

"Yes." The doctor simply said. He then led Nigel and Celina out of the room.

"I can't believe you. I could have handled this mission myself, but instead, you send those two weaklings to take care of business." The boy finally spoke after the trio had left. "I knew they would fail."

"Don't be so anxious. This might play well. Letting her gain some friendship might be our advantage," the master thought sinisterly.

The young man was going to ask another question, but then stopped himself since he knew asking it would be futile. "Fine, but Celina and Nigel better not fail again. The sooner we get the princess, the sooner we get the kingdom."

"Agree."

* * *

"Jay, what are you doing?" Jesse asked curiously. He saw Jaden was marking something on almost every single tree they had passed by.

"I'm marking them, just in case we get lost or something," Jaden grinned as he used his arrow to put a small "X" on the tree bark.

"You do realize we have a map, right?" Jesse showed him a map that had been wrapped up.

"I know, but I want to practice my marking skill," Jaden revealed.

"Alright, hey, where's Rena and Alexis?" Jesse decided to change topic when he didn't see Rena or Alexis anywhere near them.

"They're behind us." Jaden pointed back. "Rena said she would walk with Alexis to help her and stuff. It'll all be all her fault if we are delay of our mission."

"Jay, can't you be a little nice to her? She did get capture and forced to travel with us, after all. Don't you think you can help her day be better by being nice to her?" Jesse tried to convince his friend.

"I guess, but she can be so annoy at time with her royal talk and stuff," Jaden complained.

"And if Rena was here, I'm sure she would said 'you sound like a whining kid," Jesse imitated Rena. "And besides, she's trying, so give her some slack."

"Fine, but the second she starts talking about how the castle do things, I will fight back."

* * *

"Alexis, are you okay? Do you need a rest?" Rena asked in concern. She wanted to make sure they were going at the pace that was okay for Alexis to walk.

"No, I'm okay." Alexis said a bit out of breathe. "Hey, Rena, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"How can I make Jaden like me better? I mean, I'm sick of every time I want to start a conversation with him. He just gives me a sour look and replied with a one simple word."

"Well, you could try to act more like one of us." Rena thought. When Alexis gave her a confused look, since she never hanged around with middle class people, Rena continued," Like maybe you can catch up with Jay and Jess and walk with them or offer to do something when we set up camp for the night. You can also find some berries right now, like what Jay and Jess are doing right now." She pointed at them when she saw them picking up some berries assuming that they were hungry, since their stomachs are like a black hole.

"That's a good idea!" Alexis excitedly agreed. She then had a sudden energy and started to run toward the boys to help them.

"Hey, wait up," Rena ran after her. When she reached the boys, she asked for Alexis, "Hey, guys, can we help with gathering the berries?"

"Sure, why not, it never hurts to have more people to help find food," Jesse cheered.

"Yeah, but can you do it?" Jaden asked pointing toward Alexis.

"Of course, see," Alexis bend down to pick one of the berries and showed it to them.

"Hey! Put that down!" Jaden screamed which surprised everyone. During that shock, Alexis accidently dropped the berry she was holding. When they saw the berry had fallen to the ground, Jaden ran up to check on her hand. "That berry was poisonous. Rena, give me some water."

"Okay," Rena then summoned a sphere of water and walked over to Jaden and Alexis so he can clean her hand up. Jesse also walked up to them to check on them.

"You're lucky you just touch it for a little bit," Jaden said as he took out a cloth and started to wash Alexis' hand. "The poison could have sunk into your skin and into your nervous system."

"I'm sorry. I should have been careful." Alexis said quietly.

"No, it's not your fault. It's hard to tell which berries are poisonous, especially… if it's your first time," Jaden admitted. "There, you should be okay now." He gave it one last wipe.

"Thanks."

"What happen to Jay? He would have blown up about how she was so reckless before," Rena whispered to Jesse.

"Simple, I talk to him. Guess I'm just a better comforter than you. I should have been the rock for people when we were little," Jesse joked.

"No way, what did you say to him?" Rena surprised by this.

"I just told him to give her a chance."

"That's exactly what I said!"

"Well, then you don't have the bond that I have with Jaden."

"I can't believe this," Rena sighed. "At least, now you can be the comforter. I'm tire of being the one everyone goes to when they're down."

"What are you guys talking about?" Jaden asked since neither of them had left the spot after that event.

"Nothing," they both shook their heads and caught up with them.


	11. Chapter 11

First things first, Happy New Year! Hope you all had an awesome 2012!

Hey, guys, sorry for being out for so long! I was really busy this December and these last few weeks I was out because I had my wisdom teeth pulled... Not fun, whatsoever... But I finally got this chapter up! Hope you guys like it!

Please Review! And if you have any idea please PM me about it!

* * *

"Rena, Jesse, wake up!" Jaden shook them violently. "Wake up!"

"What in the world do you want, Jay?" Rena turned to the other side to avoid Jaden's constant shaking.

"Yeah, Jay, what so important that you actually woke up before us and is so excited that you are in a good spirit in the morning?" Jesse asked rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"Guys, I can see a town nearby! I bet we can make it there in about an hour or two!" Jaden said excitedly and he started to shake them again.

"Great, we can go in the afternoon," Rena said.

"What's wrong, Rena? You're usually the first one of us to wake up." Jesse asked now sitting up straight since he was awaken by Jaden's scream and shaking.

"She been up all night trying to help Alexis with… whatever that princess need help now," Jaden scratched his head since he can't exactly remembered what the two girls were doing last night.

"Jaden, you promise to be nicer," Jesse warned. "Hey, by the way, where is she anyway? I thought we were all sleeping in the same tent and everything."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Jaden waved his hand to avoid another one of those lectures from Jesse. _'Man, he's been better at those speeches now days. I wonder why…'_ Jaden thought to himself. "She said something about freshing up in the lake. She was the reason why I was awake so early this morning."

"You two, if you want a conversation, TAKE IT OUTSIDE!" Rena shouted angrily. "Some people want to sleep!"

"Yes ma'am," Jaden and Jesse said while running out of the tent.

"Man, who would have thought Rena was not a morning person?" Jesse wandered. "Or even snap?"

"I did… I woke her up once at 6 o'clock when we were little… I still have nightmares about it…" Jaden said while shivering about the memory of accidently waking her up so early. "She really is not a morning person when we were little…"

"You know, somehow, I don't really want to know what happen," Jesse sweat-dropped.

"Trust me, you don't," Jaden place his hand on Jesse's back. "Oh, hi, Alexis, thought you were going to take longer than that!" Jaden smiled when he saw Alexis walking in through some bushes.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Alexis asked while drying her hair with a towel.

"Nothing," Jesse replied for Jaden to prevent him from saying anything that might upset the girl.

"Man, what does a girl have to do to get some quietness around here!?" Rena angrily screamed as she flipped open the cover of the tent. She is one of those who can't stand any noises when she's trying to get some sleep.

"Morning, Rena!" Jaden smiled like nothing had ever happen. "Were you able to get some shut eyes?"

"What do you think, huh?" Rena glared at him.

"So what are we going to do for breakfast?" Jesse changed the subject quickly before the last conversation could end up with Rena beating the life out of Jaden.

"Well, Jaden did said there was a town close by, so we might as well go and eat there," Rena suggested while trying her best not to fall asleep.

"No way, I'm starving now!" Jaden whined.

"Then gather some berries while we walk there!" Rena argued. Right at this moment, she really does not want to deal with Jaden's food problem. "We're going no matter what! And we will leave you behind if you are giving me another one of your comments!"

"What's wrong with her?" Alexis asked in a bit of a scare tone.

"She just had a bad night, that's all," Jesse explained.

"She's never in a good mood if she doesn't get her full eight hour of sleep," Jaden said as he putted his hands behind his head.

Soon after this 'happy' conversation, everyone helped putting away all the things they had laid out for the night. Jesse was teaching Alexis how to put the tent away and back into the bag, while Jaden and Rena were disposing the fire they had created last night.

"Okay, I think that's everything. If everyone's ready, we can leave," Rena smiled getting her energy back when she was working a while ago. As they were walking, Jaden did take Rena's advice of picking berries to eat as they advanced toward the town. Although the berries didn't completely satisfy his stomach, they did help with shutting his mouth about the problem of there's no food.

"Jaden, if you keep eating those berries, you're going to be full by the time we reach the town," Jesse warned.

"No way, right now my stomach is not even one-eighth full," Jaden revealed as he took another handful berries. "Besides who gets full just by eating berries?"

"I guess so," Jesse said. "Well, then give me some of them too," He said as he took some berries from Jaden's hand.

"Ah! You thief! Give me back my berries!" Jaden shouted in anger while tackling Jesse to make him give back those berries. The sad thing was the berries were already in Jesse's mouth when Jaden attacked him. There were only two ways of making Jaden anger: insulting or hurting his friend and stealing his food (which Jesse had just done).

"Hey, get off of me, you freak!" Jesse screamed as he putted his hand on Jaden's face to push Jaden away from him.

"Grow up, you two!" Rena yelled at them like a mother would toward her two children.

"Um, guys, I think we're here," Alexis said quietly pointing toward the town that was getting closer by the second. She was also surprised by how those two were acting. _"I've never seen anyone act like this before. I don't know why but it looks kind of fun." _Alexis thought to herself while enjoying this little scene since everyone she had met so far is way too sophisticated to do something as childish as this.

"There, see now we're here, we can go eat in a restaurant, so stop fighting!" Rena yelled at them again as she broke up their fight.

"Yes, food, wait for me!" Jaden cheered. He then sped up and started to run toward the town while leaving the rest of the group in dust.

"Hey, Jay, wait!" Jesse and Rena shouted as they started to run to catch up with him. Alexis realized that she was left behind, so she started to run after them as well. When they finally reached the town, the first place they looked for was a restaurant (of course). They soon found one and ordered their food, which surprised or scared the waitress since Jaden and Jesse ordered about twenty people's amount of food.

"I never thought anyone can eat this much food," Alexis sweat-dropped as she watched Jaden and Jesse pigged out once the food was here.

"Well, you never met Jay or Jess before," Rena laughed it off. After they finished eating their breakfast, each of them decided to look around the town. Jesse wanted to visit blacksmith of this town to see if they sell any good sword. Jaden just want to look through the town and relax. Rena wanted to visit the library or a bookstore to see if they are selling any good magic book. Since Alexis didn't know what to look for, she decided to follow Rena around.

"Okay, so we'll meet at the center plaza at around 2 o'clock. Does that sound good?" Rena asked everyone to conform.

"Yep," Jaden, Jesse, and Alexis replied.

* * *

"I can't believe how big the bookstore is in this town!" Rena smiled as she carried a large book she had just brought from the store. "This is great! Now, I can focus on my magic skill as we travel!"

"I'm glad you like the book so much," Alexis happily said.

"Yeah, thank you, Alexis, for buying the book for me. I could never afford a book this big and important," Rena said in gratitude.

"No problem, it's the least thing I can do for putting up with me all these time," Alexis shamefully said. She understood that if she wasn't there, this mission would be whole lot easier not just for Rena but also Jaden and Jesse.

"What are you saying? I'm happy to have a new member to join our little trip, especially a girl. You have no idea how insane it can be with just me around those two," Rena sadly said.

"Hey, come on, man, that price is way too expansive! Can't you just drop it down?" a voice cried with someone in a distance.

"But sir, I already drop the price twice," the owner of the shop commented back toward the customer.

"Well, then drop it a bit more," the voice said.

"Jaden, what are you doing?" Rena said as she and Alexis walked toward him. As it turned out the voice who was arguing with the owner was indeed Jaden.

"Oh, hi, guys, I'm trying to persuade this dude to drop the price down," Jaden explained pointing to the grocery he was trying to buy.

"Sir, please, you're holding up the line…" The owner sweat-dropped clearly trouble by the pressure Jaden was putting on him.

"And I told you to drop the price down!" Jaden slammed the table continuously but not hard enough to knock down all the foods that were on the table. "I'm not leaving unless you drop the price down!"

"Okay, fine, fine, I'll drop it down just please leave!" The owner finally gave in and let Jaden have the grocery with only 50 gold instead of the original 250 gold. (I don't know, I just make that up so…)

"Nice work, Jay," Rena patted Jaden's back after they had left the stand. As they were leaving, people were giving them the eyes of anger for making them wait so long or the eyes of disbelief that someone as young as Jaden was able to force the owner to lower the price by that much. "Your ability of pressuring people never ceases to amaze me."

"Haha, thanks."

"By the way, have you seen Jesse? We are supposed to meet here at 2," Rena said while looking around trying to find the blue-haired boy.

"Oh, I saw him at the blacksmith shop. Apparently, he's amazed by all swords that were in the shop and was asking the blacksmith how to create those swords so he'll probably be late," Jaden explained. "Oh, and speaking of which, I saw a poster about a show at 2:30 of how to create powerful arrows. Is it okay for me to go to that?"

"But that's really soon. I was hoping to be done now, so we can continue with our mission," Rena hesitated on whether letting Jaden go or not. She realized this would be a great opportunity for him to learn a new technic for his archer ability, but at the same time, they really shouldn't do anything that would sidetrack their mission.

"I know, I know, but I really want to go!" Jaden begged. "And besides Jesse isn't even here yet! I should be able to go since he's taking his sweet time right now!"

"Jay, you're shouting," Rena sighed, "I guess we can rest for at least a day. I mean Jaden you actually want to learn something that might never ever happen again. I can't miss this opportunity."

"Hey!" Jaden angrily said.

"May I go with you?" Alexis asked surprising both Jaden and Rena.

"Are you sure you can bear with me for that long?" Jaden joked.

"Yeah, you might feel like wanting to kill yourself for hanging out with him for so long." Rena kidded along with Jaden.

"I'll be fine. I actually want to see it too," Alexis admitted. She indeed wanted to see it, but she also hoped that by doing this, Jaden will finally realized that she isn't the type of bad, rich person he was talking about.

"I guess that's fine then. Okay, you guys can go and I'll stay here to wait for Jesse," Rena waved to them to tell them to get out of here.

"Thanks, Rena, you're the best," Jaden cheered before grabbing Alexis' hand to drag her to their destination.

"And don't you forget it!" Rena shouted it after them in a joking manner.

* * *

"So, do you even know where this thing is at?" Alexis asked.

"Sure, it's um… it's, well, the poster said it's at downtown, so it'll be at…" Jaden pondered at the thought where downtown would be at.

"Doesn't downtown mean it'll be at south of the town since you know it 'down'?" Alexis asked.

"Haha, right, it'll be at south," Jaden laughed in embarrassment. "And south would be at…?"

"This way," Alexis pointed toward south, disbelief at the stupidity of the young lad.

"Right…"

"Excuse me, but are you guys looking for Master Zeke's arrow show?" a man wearing a blue cloak asked when he hear the conversation between two about the directions.

"Yeah, we are." Jaden replied, "who are you?"

"My name is Kyle. I'm Master Zeke's apprentice," the man named Kyle announced.

"Sweet, so can you show me where this show is going to be at then?" Jaden asked.

"Of course, just follow me," Kyle said.

"Alright, come one, Alexis, now we don't have to be worry about being lost anymore."

* * *

"Hi, Rena, where's everyone at?" Jesse waved at Rena as he walked toward her, who happened to be sitting next to the fountain reading her new magic book.

"Jesse, where have you been? I told you to be at the plaza at 2!" Rena said in disbelief as she stood up when she saw Jesse walking toward her.

"Like I said in the morning I wanted to go to the blacksmith's shop. Man, Rena, you should have been there, he had the most awesomeness swords ever! I wish you have seen them. It's so cool and the best part is that he even taught me how to create some of them! I can't wait to try it out!"

"Jesse! You're avoiding the problem here! I know where you were going, but I was worry something had happen to you when you weren't here on time," Rena cried.

"Look, I'm sorry, Rena, really. I'll pay you back. How about I buy you that magic book you wanted so bad at our village's library?" Jesse panicked since he didn't expected Rena to burst out like that.

"You promised?"

"Of course, I promise!" Jesse said hoping that this will calm the poor girl down.

"Hehe," Rena giggled not able to hold her worry expression any longer.

"Wait a sec, you tricked me!" Jesse angrily said when he realized Rena was faking this entire time.

"Haha, yes, I did. Jaden told me you were going to be late, but I thought I might as well think of a way to punish you for being late," Rena laughed. "Besides, I got a magic book at this town anyway. I have been reading and practicing them while I was waiting for you." Rena revealed. "Oh, but you still own me, because you promised," Rena stuck her tongue out.

"Why you little…!"

"But the truth is I was worry about you. You're one of my best friends. I don't want anything happen to you," Rena admitted.

"Aw, you're finally showing your soft side," Jesse joked. "Come here give me a hug."

"Leave me alone," Rena pushed Jesse away when he tried to give his brunette friend a hug.

"Anyway, where is Jaden and Alexis anyway?" Jesse asked finally gave up on trying to give the girl a hug.

"Jaden wanted to see a demonstration of creating arrows and Alexis said she wanted to see it with him," Rena explained.

"Together? I won't be surprise when they return and are arguing their heads off."

"I won't be either."

"Hey, do you want to go see that arrow show?" A random boy, who was passing by the plaza, asked his friend.

"No way, don't you know that the street where the shop is located is full of troubles," his friend replied. "And I bet the place where the arrow show is located is dangerous too."

"Isn't that where Jaden and Alexis are going?" Jesse asked in worry.

"Oh no…"

* * *

Oh-ho, looks like Jaden and Alexis are heading toward trouble... I didn't realize this chapter was going to be this long... Hope you guys don't mind... If you guys are okay with the length, then I'm happy to write this long from now on. Guess this is my way of apologizing for taking so long to write this chapter down.


	12. Chapter 12

**Please read this.**

Sorry for not updating for so long! I was going to do it this last week, but I had finals this past week... I had to study...

And also, I was reading and watching Yu-Gi-Oh! GX sub during Christmas break, so now I'm use to the Japanese names... So it depends on you guys but I might change to their Japanese's names. Please PM or review to tell me what you think. If no one reply, then I will change it to the Japanese's names.

Anyway, hope you'll like this chapter, and please review!

* * *

"So where is this Master Zeke's place anyway?" Jaden asked Kyle as they walked down the different streets of the town. He wanted to start a conversation since there was an awkward silence for the longest time.

"We'll be there momentarily, please have a bit more patience," Kyle apologized for their long walk. "Here we are: Master Zeke's workshop." Kyle pointed to a building with a logo of a bow and arrow forming a X.

"Sweet, let's go in," Jaden said excitedly as he entered the building. Alexis and Kyle soon walked in after him. As they went in, Jaden started to have an uneasy feeling about all this when he started to look around the inner building. The hall was covered by different sets of armors. The hall was also dark only lightened by the torches on either sides of the wall. _"Something is not right here."_ Jaden thought, but he quickly threw that thought away once he entered a big giant room that looked like a practice hall for battles.

"Welcome, I'm glad see you guys here," a mid-aged man came out of the shadow smiled. "I'm Master Zeke." The man proclaimed.

"So what kind of awesome techniques are you going to show us?" Jaden asked excitedly.

"Well, for starter, how about this?" Master Zeke asked as he threw a dark orb toward Alexis.

"Watch out!" Jaden caught in surprise by the fact that the master would attack them, especially against Alexis who had no experience in fighting whatsoever. Jaden then quickly ran toward Alexis to push her out of harm's way and ended up taking the attack for himself. "Argh!" Jaden cried as the pain shocked throughout his entire body.

"Jaden!" Alexis cried disbelief by the fact that the young lad would throw himself to protect. It was true that everyone in the kingdom, or at least every knight in the king's armies, was supposed to give their lives to the royal family. However, she didn't suspect Jaden, who never really show any care about her, would throw his own body in order to protect hers.

"Fine by me, I'll just get rid of you first," Master Zeke shrugged his shoulders. "Kyle, close the gate!"

"Yes, master," Kyle simply followed his master's order and pushed a red button causing the iron doors to fall down from the ceilings to lock Jaden and Master Zeke inside the battleground.

"Jaden!" Alexis shouted in worry as she grabbed on the bars of the iron doors (the doors are like jail-cell doors). She pushed out to the hallway when Jaden saved her.

"After all, Boss did say I can do whatever I want in order to capture the princess," Master Zeke said as he's ready for another attack.

"Capture the princess?" Jaden said as he slowly tried to regain his balance as he stood up. "Then does that mean you are with those two?"

"Who? Celina and Nigel? Yes, I'm on the same side as them, however, I am much more powerful than they are together," Master Zeke admitted. "And much more crueler as well, haha."

"Then this should be a good battle, huh?" Jaden grinned ready for the fight. "Sorry, to say this, pal, but you're not taking the princess unless it's from my cold dead hands, or at least that's what I promised to my friends."

"Cocky boy, aren't we?" Master Zeke asked. "I'll change that." Master Zeke said as he pulled out a bow and arrow in midair. "You might call me a liar for tricking you into a battle with me, however, my ability as an archer is never a lie. I am the best in town and I'll show you why, Jaden Yuki."

"Woah!" Jaden shouted in surprise by the fact that the enemy somehow knew his name. "How… Did you know my name?"

"I've done my study. I will not fail like Nigel and Celina did. Boss should have just asked me to do the job, instead of wasting his precious time with those two losers," Master Zeke said with a hint of disgust in his tone.

"I see, then I can't wait to test that theory out," Jaden gave Master Zeke his most famous smile, ready for a duel.

"You got courage, boy. I'll give you that much," Master Zeke grinned. After Master Zeke had said that, Jaden quickly drew out his bow and arrows ready for Master Zeke's attack. However, instead of attacking, Master Zeke just stood there and watched him carefully. "Go ahead, attack. I'll let you have the first hit." Master Zeke said after seeing Jaden's confused face.

"Then those can be your last words, ready?" Jaden pulled his arrow as far and as hard as he could before he released the aimed arrow toward the old master. Instead of dodging it, Master Zeke simply swung his hand to destroy Jaden's arrow. "What…!?" Jaden said in shock.

"That's all you got, boy?" Master Zeke simply asked. "Then it's time for your lesson, Jaden." He said as he prepared his bow and arrow. "Lesson one: arrows are like part of your body. Anything you channel through your body can be channel through the arrow as well." Master Zeke then drew back his arrow. "For example, your magic," Master Zeke gathered his magic and suddenly the arrow started to glow in red. When the red became crimson red, Master Zeke released the arrow toward Jaden.

"Ah!" Jaden shouted in pain when the arrow landed right next to him and a huge flame started to engulf him. Since it was a magical flame, the flame did not last forever. After a while, the flame left Jaden's burned body.

"So how does that feel?" Master Zeke asked after the magic had left and the arrow had disappeared.

"It… it was… nothing," Jaden barely got those words out as he grabbed his bow tightly and slowly tried to get up once again.

"Jaden!" Alexis shouted as she tried to break down the gate to help him.

"Get away from there," Jaden warned her to make sure she was away from harm as far as possible.

"Mm, I'm surprise you still got the energy to get up. How about a deal, buddy? Give me the princess, and I'll let you become my apprentice," Master Zeke decided to offer Jaden a deal.

"Ha, in your dream," Jaden laughed while wiping the dirt off his face. "I already told you I promised I won't let anything happen to the princess. And beside I'm determined to defeat you right now so there's reason for you to teach me anything once I surpass you."

"Hm," Master Zeke took a deep breathe. "Then the battle continues. Lesson two: the best kinds of attacks are the ones you cannot see." After he said, Master Zeke shot an arrow offside of Jaden, causing the boy to be confused by the master's action.

"Where are you shooting that…?" Jaden taunted before being cut off by a sudden shock of pain on his left shoulder. "Argh!" Jaden quickly fell to his knees then looked closely at his shoulder to find an arrow sticking to his shoulder. "How…?" Jaden asked as he carefully tried to pull the arrow out.

"I told you, lad: the best attacks are the one you can't see," Master Zeke repeated himself.

"Master's illusion shot never misses its target," Kyle said as he carefully watched the battle next to Alexis.

"No way…" Alexis said in disbelief. She had; in fact, saw the path the arrow had traveled. The arrow was indeed aiming toward the wall, but before the arrow made contact with the wall, the arrow was bounced to a different direction, as if there was an air force pushing it back.

"Master's attack uses wind to push the arrow toward different directions, thus making it impossible for one to predict where the arrow is," Kyle revealed the secret of Master Zeke's attack. "Don't worry. I'm not going to do anything to you. Master Zeke hasn't order me to do anything to you yet," Kyle said coldly when he said the fear in Alexis' eyes. "Or are you worry about the boy who is in battle with my master?"

"Jaden won't lose!" Alexis said in determination. Instead of replying to the young lass' comment, Kyle simply looked to the battle once more.

"What do you say, boy? Ready to give up?" Master Zeke asked as he took a step toward Jaden.

"No, way, the fight is just getting interesting,"

"I'm tired of this. One who doesn't know when to quit is just simply an idiot. And I have no tolerance toward an idiotic enemy," Master Zeke raised his bow ready to deal the final blow toward Jaden. "It's a shame, really, to throw away a talent like yours." Master Zeke sighed as he aimed the arrow toward Jaden's head.

"Jaden!" Alexis cried in fear when the master released his hand to let the arrow fly freely.

All Jaden could do was bow his head in shame for the fact that he had just lost the battle since his entire body was in too much pain to even move.

"Quitting already, Jaden? That's not like you," a voice said as a person destroyed the arrow easily with a red flash.

"Rena, Jesse!?" Jaden said in surprise seeing his best friends appearing right in front of him. "How… how did you… get in here?"

"Rena learned this cool new magic. It let us teleport to anywhere we want!" Jesse explained to Jaden in excitement.

"I'm still kind of learning. It took me a while to finally sent us here, haha," Rena guilty admitted as she scratched her head with an animated water drop.

"Kyle! How could you let this happen?" Master Zeke shouted in anger looking at Kyle. When he looked toward that direction; however, he found an unconscious Kyle lying right next to Alexis. "What the…?"

"We defeated him before we got into this cage looking place," Jesse put his hands behind his head.

"Whatever, I'll just take on the job myself," Master Zeke shook that off. "I knew an apprentice would fail. They are worthless."

"Jess, let's go," Rena said quietly.

"Right behind you." Jesse smiled unsheathing his sword. They then both charged toward the master, though they quickly stopped their track when Master Zeke shot a bunch of his arrows in the air.

"Rena, Jesse, watch out! Those arrows are unpredictable!" Jaden warned. Although with some effort, Jesse and Rene did manage to dodge or destroy all of the arrows. "That's was close."

"Shoot, we can't get close to him like this. Every time we move, he just kept throwing attacks at us," Jesse said.

"Then we'll just try a long range attack. Heat Wave!" Rena shot a red, crescent wave right in between two arrows, while Jesse blocked out the two arrows for her. However, just like Jaden's arrow, Master Zeke destroyed the attack with ease. "Che," Rena said annoyingly.

"Now what?" Jesse asked.

Rena gave a quick look at Jaden before replying, "Keep on trying I guess. We can't let him take the princess, after all." _"And we need to protect Jaden too."_ Rena thought for the very last part.

"Works for me," Jesse started to charge toward Master Zeke while he avoided the older man's attacks. When Jesse got to the sword range, Master Zeke drew his bow in front of his face to block Jesse's attack. However, Master Zeke was way too powerful for Jesse as he was able to push the blue-hair boy back to where Rena was.

"Jess, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Jesse wiped his sweat off his face.

"I'm sick of this," Master Zeke said in a disgusted tone. "Time to finish this once and for all," Master Zeke took a deep breath and gathered all his power into his next shot. As he pulled back the arrow, it started to shine in a bright white light. Rena and Jesse, on the other hand, were preparing for the attack to come. However, before the preparation was complete, Master Zeke dropped his weapons and fell to the ground.

"Wha…?" Jesse and Rena gasped in unison.

"Don't forget about me. I'm still in this fight, you know," Jaden slowly stood up using his bow as a support. "You're right. Unseen attack is the best kind of attacks out there."

"How… could you… possibly learn… the technique so quickly…?" Master Zeke stared at him in hatred eyes.

"Jaden has always been the quickest learner out of all of us," Rena walked toward Jaden and smiled.

"But only when it comes to battle, if you teach him anything in a class, he will forget it in a sec," Jesse added.

"It's like the words were going into one side and come out the other one, right away," Rena agreed.

"Hey! Don't add those unnecessary things!" Jaden yelled in embarrassment.

"You think this… will stop me?" Master Zeke punched the ground trying to stand up as he coughed out some blood.

"Heat Waves!"

"Heaven Glazes!"

Jesse and Rena attacked Master Zeke at the same time to prevent him from standing up and fight again.

"Argh," Master Zeke fell once again, but this time he lost his conscious as well.

"That was close," Rena fell on her butt in relief.

"Guess that's that," Jesse sighed.

"Let's get out of here before he wakes up," Jaden suggested.

"Good idea."

"Yo, princess, let's go!" Jaden yelled toward Alexis.

"Okay," Alexis smiled in relief that all three of them are okay.


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey, guys! Sorry, but here's the next chapter! I was super busy this pass month. My school just did a musical in February so we were all trying to do it perfectly (which took a lot of hours...) I'm truly sorry... And I would promise to update sooner but I had an essay/journal thing due soon so I need to do that... So I'm going to be busy again... It will be less chaotic during April (Thank God!) so hopefully by then I'll update more often :)**

**Anyway enjoy the chapter! Hope you guys like it!**

**Please Review to tell me what you guys thought or where I can improve :) All thoughts are welcome!**

* * *

"Aw, aw, aw! Can't you be a little bit gentler?" Judai whined as Rena wrapped bandages around his wounded body.

"Well, if you don't move that much, it wouldn't be as painful!" Rena argued back.

"Don't yell at an injured person!" Judai yelled pointing to himself.

"Don't yell at the one who's treating you! And don't be a baby!" Rena purposely pressed on his wound harder as she made her statement.

"Hey, stop arguing, you two. People don't usually argue when they are giving treatments to others, you know?" Johan stopped them.

"Well, he started."

"You were the one who was being brutal."

"Why you…!"

"Okay, that's enough," Johan came between them again before they would start biting each of their heads off. "Asuka, can't you help me with this?"

"Oh, what, sorry, I didn't exactly hear you," Asuka admitted she was doing a bit of daydreaming.

"What's wrong, Asuka? You been zoning out a lot since we left Master Zeke's place," Rena asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm fine. I guess I'm just a bit tire," Asuka lied. In fact, she was feeling guilty due to the fact that she was not able to do anything during the fight with Master Zeke. She was force to watch the people, whom she hoped she will be able to be friends with, getting hurt because of her.

"If you say so," Rena said as she continued to wrap the bandages around Judai.

"I told you to be gentler!"

"Watch it, or I'll cut the circulation on your arm!"

"Johan! Rena's threating me again!"

"Am not!"

"Are so~!" Judai stuck his tongue out.

"Stop it!" Johan couldn't take this fighting anymore, especially when he somehow was dragged into it. "Rena, please just finish treating him without doing him anymore damages."

"Fine, but it won't be my fault if he somehow is missing an arm tomorrow."

"You are the worst nurse in the history of medical care," Judai said in horror.

"Thanks, I was born to be that person," Rena smiled. After another 10 minutes of arguing what is the proper way for treating a person, Rena was finally done wrapping Judai up. Luckily, no further injuries had appeared on the boy's body. "There, are you happy, you little baby?"

"Yes, I'm just glad nothing else is broke when you were torturing me," Judai replied sarcastically.

"See, you guys can work together without killing each other," Johan reasoned.

"Whatever, c'mon, we need to set up tent and everything for the night," said Rena as she stood up ready to work. "Unless you're in too much pain to do anything," She said looking at Judai.

"No, I'm perfectly fine. And I'll prove it to you by catching our dinner," Judai got up after her.

"Fine by me, I'll be waiting here to cook it then," Rena shrugged her shoulders.

"Then I'll go look for the firewood," Johan decided.

"Asuka, would you mind putting up the tent then?" Rena asked the absent-minded girl.

"Huh? Yeah, sure," Asuka answered without even knowing what she had just agree to.

"Great, here's the tent and you can use those sticks on the floor as the poles," Johan pointed to a pile of sticks before he left to gather the woods for the fire.

"Okay…?" Asuka replied confusingly due to the fact that she had missed the conversation before this.

"You didn't hear what Johan say to you before, did you?" Rena asked seeing the blonde girl's confused face.

"No, sorry, I did not," Asuka admitted.

"Don't sweat it. All Johan said was to use those sticks to make the tent," Rena repeated what Johan had said.

"Oh, um…," Asuka started to look around for the thing that is called 'tent.'

"You don't know how or what a tent is, do you?" Rena looked at her action and assumed. When Asuka shook her head, Rena decided she might as well teach Asuka how to make a tent since there was nothing to cook right now. "Okay, then here, I'll help you."

* * *

"What's wrong? You don't look so well, Asuka," Rena finally asked Asuka after seeing how distracted Asuka had been this entire day.

"I'm okay, really," Asuka gave Rena a weak smile. "I'm sorry you guys had to do so much for me."

"That's okay," Rena smiled. "It's our job after all."

This, however, only made Asuka feel worse since it reminded her of her inability to fight. Wanting to change the subject, Asuka thought of something else that is a worrisome in her life, "I'm just thinking about how when I get home, I'm going to have to find a suitor right away."

"So? Don't you have a dozen of suitors to help you decide your wardrobe anyway? So why does it matter if you have one more suitor?" Rena asked innocently. Since the word was similar to 'suits,' she just assumed it had something to do with clothes.

"No, not as a tailor, but as a groom," Asuka explained. "My father wants me to marry soon so he knows I'll be taken care off before he died."

"Wait, but doesn't a marriage require the woman and man to love one another? My mommy and daddy always said a marriage is when a couple loves one anther so much that they want to spend the rest of their lives with each other." Rena remembered the words of her parents.

"Guess that logic doesn't work with royalty," said Asuka sadly. "I tried to tell that to father every time he brings a suitor, but it never works. I even treat those suitors coldly, yet father doesn't give up nor do the suitors."

"Man, that must suck," Rena said not exactly understanding the situation since she never had to deal with a rich person problem. "Well, you never know, maybe you'll find somebody you want to spend the rest of your life with during this trip."

"_Yeah, as long he is a royalty,"_ Asuka thought sadly remembering that a princess can only marry to a prince or someone close to that status but certainly not a peasant.

"Hey, guys, we're back!" Judai cheered as he and Johan walked in. Johan was carrying a bunch of firewood while Judai was holding on a dead deer. "I thought you were putting up the tent." Judai asked in shock pointing to the unfinished tent.

"Oh, sorry, we got into talking so we didn't finish," Rena apologized. "I'll finish it quickly, hold on." Rena grabbed the rest of the supporting sticks and started to work on putting them on. She decided to do the rest alone since she can go quicker when she does it alone.

"Alright, then I'll set up the fire now. C'mon, Judai, come and help me while Rena is doing that," Johan grabbed Judai before the brunette boy had a choice to argue about his decision.

"Okay, I guess I'm helping," Judai casually said as he's being dragged across the ground.

"Um… Can I help somehow?" Asuka asked quietly. She wanted to do something for the team from now on. She thought if she can't be at the front line fighting, maybe she can be the one in the back who healed and supported the party.

"Sure, come with us and we'll teach all about starting a fire and cooking a meal," Johan smiled. Judai, on the other hand, just made an pouty face thinking about the fact he had to sit through a lesson of how to live to support oneself.

After about 10 minutes, Rena was finally finished setting up the tent. She then helped Judai skin the deer since Asuka was still grossed out by the thought of that. "Okay, I'll start cooking now," Rena said after the deer was skinned and cut in four pieces.

* * *

"Man, you cook this deer to perfection, Rena!" Johan cheered heartily.

"Glad you like it, Johan," Rena satisfied that they enjoyed her food.

"It's a little dry though," Judai purposely said to start another fight with the girl.

"You know what, Judai, go fall into a hole," Rena glared at him. "Or better yet, let me push you into the hole that I dig for you myself!"

"Then I'll just drag you down with me," Judai stuck his tongue out.

"Hey, hey, come now, eating time should be full of happiness not fighting," Johan calmed down his two best friends.

"Mom was fine with it when we were little," Rena whispered while Judai nodded in agreement.

"Well, this isn't your house, so that rule doesn't apply," Johan clearly heard Rena's comment.

"Forget that," Judai suddenly said. "Did you guys see me yesterday? I was awesome! Hey, Rena!"

"What?"

"I just thought of an awesome idea!"

"What is it?" An irritated Rena asked as she bit a piece of meat out of her share.

"You should teach me magic!"

"Where did that came from?" Rena shockingly asked almost choked from her piece. Throughout their entire time of training, Judai had done nothing but complain about why they have to learn magic and such. He had hated magic ever since he knew the meaning of the word 'magic.'

"I thought you hated magic with a passion," Johan agreed with Rena.

"I do but didn't you guys see what Master Zeke can do?" Judai asked. "He was able to use magic to enhance his arrows! Just think how much powerful I can be if I learn magic! And Rena, you always say anyone can learn magic!"

"_Anyone can learn magic, huh?" _Asuka repeated Judai's words in her head. _"Maybe, just maybe, I can learn it too…"_ A small ray of hope started to shine inside Asuka's heart.

"Judai, you can't even use a crystal. What makes you think you can handle elemental magic?" Rena asked in concern. The simplest type of magic is the using a materialized object, like a crystal, that already contained some magic in itself. One cannot summon magic in midair without learning the most basic magic there is.

"I figure it out, so will you?" Judai asked happily.

"Fine, I guess," Rena sighed.

"Yes! Thank you, Rena!" Judai cheerfully hugged her. "I guess you weren't as bad as I thought."

"Yeah, yeah."

"What about me? I want to learn magic too!" Johan asked now wanting to be involved in this as well.

"Now, why do you want to as well?" Rena asked already exhausted even though the first lesson hasn't even started yet.

"Cuz I bet I can use magic into my art just like Judai can with his archer ability," Johan smiled.

"You two," Rena sighed. "Okay, fine, whatever, I'll do it."

"Thank you, Rena," Judai and Johan said in unison.

"_What have I just got myself into…?"_ Rena thought sadly in her head.

* * *

**Bedtime**

"C'mon, Judai, it's time for bed!" Rena yelled at Judai who was still outside the tent fixing his bow.

"I'll be there in 5 minute!" Judai screamed back checking to make his bow and arrows were in the best shape they could be.

"You said that 5 minutes ago," Johan said coming out of the tent to see what was taking the lad so long.

"Well, I mean it this time!"

"Just hurry up! We all want to sleep soon!" Rena told him.

"Okay, okay!"

After about 5 minutes, Judai did keep the promise and came in the tent. As soon as he got in, Rena threw him his blanket and ordered him to hastily set up his bed and go to sleep.

"I know you're mad that I came in late, but you don't have to treat me like a kid," Judai said since Rena was giving him the 'I'll count to 3' method.

"I know, but it's so much faster this way."

Soon after Judai had made his bed, everyone fell into a deep, sweet dream. Well, almost all, Asuka was wide awake. She had something else in mind then sleeping right now. She had decided to learn how to use magic. She searched in Rena's bag and found what she believed as a crystal since the piece she was holding was light blue, solid shard. She then stood outside of the tent and tried to use magic. It was then she realized she had no idea what the purpose or result of this should be.

"Now, what exactly are you supposed to do?" Asuka asked herself as she examined the shard. "Guess I should have talk to Rena about this first or at least ask the court's magician when I had the chance." Asuka lowered her head in shame for not thinking this through.

"Asuka? What are you doing out here at this hour?" Rena rubbed her left eye tiredly as she stepped out of the tent. She had heard rustle a few minutes ago when Asuka was searching in her bag. After Asuka had left and started talking to herself, Rena was fully awaken and found the princess was nowhere in sight of the tent and her bag was in a complete mess.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Asuka said in surprise. She did not expect her to be so loud that anyone of them had heard.

"Why do you have that?" Rena pointed to the crystal in Asuka's hand. "Do you even know what that is?"

"Of course, I…" Asuka started to look at the crystal closely trying to think of a purpose for this piece of mineral. However, soon after, she realized she had nothing and admitted, "No, I have no idea. I just thought I could learn magic through this, but I have no idea what to do."

"So that's what this is about," Rena finally understood why the princess was so depress today. "You felt useless during the battle, didn't you?"

"How did you know?"

"Magician instinct, I guess."

"I just thought by learning magic I can be more useful in this group."

"Asuka, you can't learn magic by yourself. Especially since you don't even know what a crystal is."

No replied.

"You know what I can teach you how to use magic, if you want."

"Really?"

"Sure, why not, I'm already obligated to Judai and Johan. One more wouldn't hurt."

"Thank you, Rena, thank you!"

"No problem."


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey, guys, sorry for this late update... I'm finally back... I hoped... I was so busy this last coupled of months, since I took 3 AP classes and had senioritis... Also I was having writer's block for this chapter...**

**But hopefully I will be able to update often for this story! I felt bad after reading some the reviews again, but it did prompt me to write this chapter, so yay! **

**Hope you guys will like this chapter! :D**

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"Rena! Rena!" Judai (Jaden) whispered as he shook the girl lightly. "Wake up! I'm hungry!"

"Judai (Jaden)…" Johan (Jesse) sighed while a small water drop formed behind his head. "That's not the reason why we are waking her up…" The real reason was that they wanted to start their magic lesson as soon as possible, even if that means having to deal with her devil (morning) mood, although they did waited until 9:30 (hoping this would be late enough for her).

"Well, that might not be your reason, but it's one of mine," Judai (Jaden) sheepishly smiled, pointing at himself with his thumb. Before Judai (Jaden) can call Rena's name again, he felt a hand grabbing his wrist.

"What… do you want!?" Rena angrily asked, glaring at both of them.

"_Ah! Guess 9:30 is still too early…"_ Both boys took a mental note on that.

Judai (Jaden), not afraid of her (that much, since he was used to it since childhood), shook his head to regain his composure. "Rena, I'm hungry!" He said as he shook her again.

Rena could already feel a vein was popping out her head when Judai (Jaden) finished his sentence. _"Dang it, mom, why didn't you teach him how to cook…?"_ Rena cursed in her head. "Does that stomach of yours ever get full!?"

After a few seconds of thinking, Judai (Jaden) replied with one of his goofiest smiles, "Nope."

Seeing that face of his, Rena couldn't help it but simply wanted to punch his face. However, she took a deep breathe (sigh) to calm herself down.

"You should have already known that answer before even bother asking," Johan (Jesse) laughed, seeing her annoyed face.

"Shut up," Rena glared. "Now get out so I can change." Rena pointed to the tent's exit/entrance.

"Does that mean you will make me breakfast?" Judai (Jaden) asked with sparkle in his eyes.

"Just get out…!" Rena said with a shaking voice, trying to restrain her anger. When she realized neither boy moved, an anger vein finally appeared on her head. "GET OUT NOW OR NEITHER OF YOU WILL GET BREAKFAST…EVER!"

"Yes, ma'am!" with that Judai (Jaden) and Johan (Jesse) quickly ran out of the tent, feeling their lives were hanging by a thread with that moment.

"Well, that was horrifying," Johan (Jesse) finally spoke after catching his breath for a bit.

"And here I thought I had seen her at her worse," Judai (Jaden) responded.

"Are you guys okay?" Asuka (Alexis) asked. She was just returning from her morning bath when she saw two blurs running out of the tent. After a while, she realized they weren't just simply two blurs; they were Judai (Jaden) and Johan (Jesse).

"Yeah, Rena just scared us a bit," Johan (Jesse) explained.

"Well, maybe you guys should let Rena wake up whenever she decides to in the future," Asuka (Alexis) suggested after listening to the boys' tale.

"Judai (Jaden), this is just sad that you have been living with Rena since you guys were little and yet it was the princess who suggested that idea," Johan (Jesse) sighed.

"Hey, after a while, it's kind of funny watching her throwing a tantrum," Judai (Jaden) laughed, remembering the good memories of him purposely waking Rena up because he wanted to see a show.

"Don't you boys ever shut up for three seconds?" Rena asked, opening up the tent, while throwing a pillow, not really cared where the pillow would land.

"Morning," Judai (Jaden) smiled. "What's for breakfast?"

"Whatever you found, of course," Rena sighed. Sometime she wondered if Judai (Jaden) realized the fact that they were basically surviving with whatever Mother Nature had to offer right now.

"Great! Then mind cooking this deer I caught?" Judai (Jaden) asked, pointing to the animal lying next to the camp's fire.

"_How in the world did I miss that…?"_ Rena wondered shaking her head a few times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.

"Judai (Jaden), if that's what we will have for breakfast, then what in the world are we having for dinner?" Johan (Jesse) asked, amazed by the fact that the lad wanted something like that early in the day.

"I thought it would be a good idea to get our energy up since we will be working hard, learning magic," Judai (Jaden) replied.

"What you need is a mental boost, not energy boost," Rena sighed, walking toward the deer, ready to skin the animal.

After about twenty minutes of preparation and cooking (and Judai (Jaden) constant nagging), the food was finally ready. By the time they finished eating and cleaning up, it was almost eleven.

"This is why we tried to wake you up early. It's almost noon," Johan (Jesse) sighed, looking at the position of the sun.

"Shut up," Rena mumbled underneath her breath, not wanting to hear the 'talk' from him. "Now get around here so we can start the lesson!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"What are you doing here?" Judai (Jaden) asked, looking at Asuka (Alexis). He was surprised when he saw the girl sat down next to him and Johan (Jesse). He thought Asuka (Alexis) would leave a bit of a distance between them to avoid any possible injuries (or accident, which happens a lot when Judai (Jaden) tries magic).

"She's learning too," Rena explained. "She's a newbie, so in a way, you two are equal." Rena grinned widely, looking at Judai (Jaden).

Judai (Jaden) simply looked to side, pouting, not wanting to meet Rena's eyes. He did not need a reminder of how horrible he is as a magician.

"Okay, guess we should start with the basic," Rena finally spoke after thinking for a while of how she should start this 'lesson.' "Yes, Johan (Jesse)?" Rena asked when she saw the blue-haired boy's hand raised.

"Do I have to listen to this? I already know this and can do the basic," Johan (Jesse) asked, assuming her 'basic' is defined as using a crystal shard to create a barrier (the same trick Judai (Jaden) tried to do in Chapter 1).

"It won't kill you to hear it again," Rena argued. "I mean Judai (Jaden) had heard it about just as much as you did, but he still doesn't know what a magic is."

"That's because he's usually asleep when he decides to show up for those lessons…" Johan (Jesse) sighed, adding to her point.

"Besides, I'll give you your own training plan after this, okay?"

Johan (Jesse) slowly put down his hand as he accepted Rena's decision.

"Anyway, as I was saying, magic is all around us in small particles. We, humans, in the simplest term, just combine those particles together to something large and powerful. Like this," Rena said as she moved her hands around and soon a small light sphere formed on top of her left hand. "We can also change the formation of those particles to create a new element." After she said that, that light sphere turned into a ball of water.

"Cool," Judai (Jaden) said. He had seen her do this a million times, yet each time the magic is still able to amaze him. He could not wait for a day when he will be able to do this himself.

"Now, things like crystal shards are like assistants in using magic," Rena continued her lecture as she took out a crystal from her pocket. "These little 'assistants' have already contain some magic particles in them, and they act kind of like a magnet in that they are able to attract particles when there are enough forces added into it. The forces that are needed for this are where we humans come in. We start a chain reaction by putting a bit magic into the crystal and then let the crystal do the rest."

"Your explanation is so much better when General Cronos (Crawler) explained it," Johan (Jesse) said, remembering General Cronos (Crawler) gave them a short summary for each division of the military.

"Thanks," Rena smiled. "General Cronos (Crawler) is a general for the archery, not magic. Anyway, for now, Judai (Jaden) and Asuka (Alexis), I want you guys to mediate to see if you can sense those magical particles."

"Why do I have to?" Judai (Jaden) asked. "I already did this before and I can sense it."

"Well, obviously not well enough, since you can't even gather enough magic to activate the crystal," Rena sighed, annoyed at her childhood friend for questioning her teaching style.

"Um… What should I do?" Johan (Jesse) asked when he did not hear his name called to mediate.

"You are going to try to change the element of your magic," Rena smiled.

"Alright," Johan (Jesse) raised his hands in joy.

Johan (Jesse) and Rena decided to give Judai (Jaden) and Asuka (Alexis) some space, so those two could have some peace and quiet. "Okay, Johan (Jesse), have an element you want to create in mind, and then form the magic and keep that image of the element in mind."

"Okay, here goes nothing," Johan (Jesse) said as he formed a bright, light green sphere in his hand. _"Fire, fire, fire,"_ Johan (Jesse) concentrated, following Rena's instructions. He opened his eyes when he felt warmth around his hand. He then saw that the once green sphere now turned into a hot, orange globe.

"That's amazing, Johan (Jesse)!" Rena cheered, seeing his accomplishment on his first try. She continued to clap until Johan (Jesse) lost his control and the globe flew out of his hands. "Ah!" Rena, thanked to her instinct, dodged the hot sphere flying toward her. _"Guess it was too soon to celebrate…"_

"Sorry!" Johan (Jesse) apologized. "Here, let me try again!"

"Ah, Johan (Jesse) stop!" Rena shouted, trying to dodge all those fireballs heading towards her. Before they knew, the duo had gotten further and further away from the campsite (with Johan (Jesse) trying to control the fireball and Rena running for her dear life).

"Guess, there they go…" Asuka (Alexis) said. She was not sure if she should laugh or be worried about those two.

"Alright, let's get mediating," Judai (Jaden) instructed as he took a seat on the ground.

After Asuka (Alexis) took a seat next him, both of them closed their eyes and started to mediate. About ten minutes, Asuka (Alexis) realized she was unable to feel anything unusual. She opened one of her eyes, debating if she should try asking Judai (Jaden) for help. When she took a look at the boy, a small water drop formed on Asuka's (Alexis) head. Judai (Jaden) had fallen asleep while trying to mediate.

"_What should I do about this…?"_ Asuka (Alexis) asked herself. Before she could take any actions, a large growl disrupted her thought.

"Grrr…" A voice groaned behind some trees.

"What's that?" Asuka (Alexis) questioned as she slowly stood up.

As if the owner of that voice could understand her, the creature stepped out of the trees (destroying some of those trees in the process) and revealed itself. That creature turned out to be a gigantic bear, about ten feet with white fur, and an angry one, in fact. "GrrrrRRR…!" The bear groaned again.

"What…?" Judai (Jaden) rubbed his eyes, wondering what had interrupted his nap. He awoke due to the loud noises the bear had created when it crashed down those trees. "Woah!" Judai (Jaden) shouted when he realized the large creature stood in front of him. "That's a big fellow! Oops, got to run!" Judai (Jaden) said as he grabbed Asuka's (Alexis) hand and ran away from the bear since it raised his hand and swiftly stroke down.

The bear watched as its preys ran away, which greatly angered it. The creature then began to chase after them, striking at them very now and then (thankfully Judai (Jaden) was able to dodge all of them).

"_I can't attack with this close of a range…!"_ Judai (Jaden) mentally cursed at their current situation. He had been trying his best to gain some distance between them, however, every time he did, the bear simply ran faster to catch up with them. _"If only I can create a barrier or something to distract him…!"_

"Judai (Jaden)!" Asuka's (Alexis) voice brought Judai (Jaden) back to reality.

"_Shoot!"_ Judai (Jaden) narrowed his eyes, realizing it was a dead end in front of them. The bear had gotten them corner. Judai (Jaden) quickly pushed Asuka (Alexis) behind him in order to protect her. It was then when he realized he had left his bow and arrows at the campsite.

"GrrRRRR!" The bear shouted, causing some birds in the forest to fly away. After its aggressive growl, the bear raised its hand and stroke. In respond, Judai (Jaden) grabbed Asuka (Alexis) by the waist and barely dodged the attack. After the save, Judai (Jaden) could feel that his back was pressed against the wall.

"_Argh, great…"_ Judai (Jaden) took a quick look behind him. He then reached in his pocket and took out a small crystal shard that Rena gave him a long time ago. It was her very first crystal shard. She gave it to him as a good luck charm, hoping he could achieve his first barrier with this crystal as well. _"Rena…What should I do?"_ Judai (Jaden) thought, hoping he would be able to remember any advice Rena gave to help their situation.

"**Just remember magic isn't the power to kill; it's the power to protect."**

Judai (Jaden) opened his eyes, hearing Rena's advice inside his hand. _"Power to protect…"_ Judai stared at the shard. He then turned around to look at Asuka (Alexis), whom had her eyes shut in fear. _"I'll… protect her!"_ Judai (Jaden) repeated those words in his head, with determined look, ready for the monster to attack. The bear then stroke down its hand, when the tiny crystal in Judai's (Jaden) hand began to shine. A spherical barrier was then formed around Judai (Jaden) and Asuka (Alexis).

This, however, only angered the bear even further as it continuously attacked the barrier, in attempt to break it. Judai (Jaden) tried his best to keep the barrier in place, however, after about the fifteenth blow, the barrier was weakened enough that the bear's strike actually hit him.

"Argh…" Judai (Jaden) groaned as he slowly got back to his feet. He then saw the bear completely ignored him and walked toward Asuka (Alexis). "Don't! Leave her alone!" Judai (Jaden) shouted trying to reach the girl. _"I won't make it!"_

"Burning Slash!" a voice shouted, followed by a red long slice hitting the bear.

"Shine, Hoseki!' another voice trailed after the first one. Suddenly Judai (Jaden) saw a blue blur flew down the cliff and stroke at the bear's head.

"ARRR!" The bear cried falling down to its knee.

"Johan (Jesse), Rena!" Judai (Jaden) grasped, surprised by the fact that they were here.

"Yo," Johan (Jesse) smiled.

"Leave the bear to us," Rena said as she got into her attack position.

"Yeah, just go and protect the princess," Johan (Jesse) added.

The duo then returned their attention back to the bear, when they heard the creature's growl and saw it slowly got up.

"Let's go, Johan (Jesse)," Rena said as she jumped up into the midair.

"Right behind you."

"Judai (Jaden)," Asuka (Alexis) said as she sifted her focus from the duo to the brown-haired boy walking towards her.

"You're okay?"

"Yeah, but what about you and…" Asuka (Alexis) asked as she looked up at Johan (Jesse) and Rena.

"They'll be fine," Judai (Jaden) smiled, looking at them as well. "They're strong."

"Crystal Ignite!" Johan (Jesse) cried, as his sword began to glow. He then swung his sword at the bear's stomach, causing a bright flash. When the flash is gone and everyone adjusted to the brightness, the bear was sent flying for about thirty feet. There was blood, starting to gash out of the bear's stomach.

"Burning Slash!" Rena attacked before the bear had a chance to get up again. The duo then walked up to the bear, preparing to attack again if the bear suddenly stood up. However, when they got close enough to see the bear, they saw there was smoke (or steam) appearing out of the creature. "It… disappeared…" Rena said in disbelief.

"What the…?" Johan (Jesse) said trying to comprehend the situation at hand. After a few second, they accepted the fact that there was probably nothing they can do about this situation except to leave it as it is. They then walked back to where Judai (Jaden) and Asuka (Alexis) were.

"Judai (Jaden)! I'm so proud of you!" Rena said as she approached Judai (Jaden). "You did it! You used magic!"

"Yeah!" Judai (Jaden) agreed, and soon the two began to dance to celebrate Judai's (Jaden) achievement.

"Haha," Johan (Jesse) laughed a little bit at their foolishness, especially since Judai (Jaden) had that much energy left even though he was covered in wounds. "Are you okay, princess?"

"Yes, thank you," Asuka (Alexis) nodded. "How did you know we were here?"

"We heard a large cry and thought you guys might be involved, so Rena transported us to the campsite," Johan (Jesse) explained. "Alright you two dancers, let's head back. I'm pooped."

"Second," Rena raised her hand in agreement.

"Third," Judai (Jaden) raised his hand as well.

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**Since people had comment about the name issue, I have decided to put both the Japanese and English names in the story (with the English name in parentheses). Please tell me if you guys like it this way or you guys have any idea. Thank you :)**


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